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Targeting and Engaging Your True Audience – A SPN Exclusive Article

By Adam Shore in Featured

Successfully capturing readers’ attention is critical to transform your blog from a part-time hobby into a powerful web resource. To take the giant leap into influencer-status, you must identify your target audience, understand their interests and desires, and credibly deliver quality content. So how do you get there? Many successful bloggers I know, think of their blogs like entrepreneurial ventures. Why? Effective entrepreneurs set goals, determine how to reach them, and make adjustments to keep themselves moving towards their target. You should take the same approach with your blog. Web publishers must know their customers and constantly hone their message and approach to move ahead of the pack.

Aim and Shoot

There’s an old saying that goes, “He who aims to please everyone, pleases no one.” The first step most entrepreneurs take when launching a new venture is to define the ideal customer. Whether you are an experienced blogger, or just starting out, you should always pay close attention to both your real and desired audience, and any gaps that may occur between the two. If you fail to target the appropriate individuals, you won’t reach your desired goals. So who are you targeting, and how can you go about getting to them? Regardless of whom you decide to target, there are certain steps you should follow to capture and maintain their interest.

You can’t always please everyone, so you need to have a particular industry, topic, or style that will be your focus. Customizing your approach towards a niche audience is often referred to as “niche marketing,” and essentially means that you should settle on a specific target with the understanding that your blog won’t be appropriate for everyone. Your visitors are not looking for fancy graphics or functionality, they are looking for something to believe in, something to learn from, and something that will help them entertain or better themselves. Find a topic that will align your interests with those of your ideal readership.

Be Flexible

One you have determined the main industry or niche that you are serving with your site, the next step in understanding who your suitable audience is, should be to perfect your knowledge and understanding of that industry. Quite often, the best way to learn, is to teach. The same holds true with your writing. You will quickly learn new and amazing things as you write about different topics. Use this to your advantage and start writing about things out of your comfort zone at the outset. Remember, you should look at your blog like a start-up company – this means you should constantly be learning, adapting, and adjusting. The result will be a product that is always improving and growing.

Be an Expert

Be sure to share your credentials to galvanize your expertise with your audience. In addition to broadening your horizons with new subjects, you should try to capitalize on your current unique knowledge by writing about your specific areas of expertise and personal experiences. After all, readers want to study blogs published by successful professionals, so don’t be afraid to let them know why they should pay attention to you.

Truly knowing and understanding your target audience is an integral part of any writer or entrepreneur’s ability to connect. When your audience believes their needs are being met, you can be sure that they will keep coming day after day for more useful information. While you should ideally blog about a topic that you love, it should also be written about a topic that you fully understand.

Be a Friend

Lastly, don’t forget your readers. Visitors who already frequent your website have entered into a relationship of sorts with your blog. You must make the most of their loyalty, and offer something that will motivate them to share your content with their network. Get them talking. Ask for their comments, input, and suggestions. If you’re successful, they will feel like they were some of the select few who were there from the beginning. Share your content on social media and interact with the users who retweet, or “like” it. This will help you stand out from the pack and broaden your reach.

Understanding your audience will go a long way towards building your credibility and likability. Tailoring your content to your readers and engaging with them will keep them coming back for more. You can use what you learn to craft content ideas that will pique the interest of the actual readers of your site, not just those you dreamed about prior to your initial launch. Obviously, what you write about, and its perceived quality will determine just how appealing your blog will be. When you write about topics in which you are interested, knowledgeable, or are experienced, you can share your practical knowledge to your audience’s benefit. Enthusiastic writing yields enthusiastic reading. If you share your personal expertise in a way that helps your readers, they will keep coming back for more.

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Adam Shore is a former SMB marketing executive, and currently blogs about business and management at Contemporary Manager.

How to Position Yourself: 6 Easy Steps – A SPN Exclusive Article

By Karl Walinskas in Featured

Small business is pretty competitive these days, whether you’re a professional speaker, a lawyer or a software provider. What are you doing to get noticed by meeting planners, industry leaders, and your clients? Making loads of cold calls and strewing Faxes all over the world? Buying email lists to total strangers? Come on! The secret word is positioning. I consult 90% of the time and only speak 10% of the time for my daily bread, so I have zero time to cold call and plead with meeting planners or worse, total strangers from a call sheet. I position myself as a subject-matter expert through write-ups and blog posts that I write to create business opportunities coming at me, and so can you.

Adhere to this 6-Step Process to professional positioning with words:

Have Sustenance

This one is obvious. It’s rather easy for professional speakers, you’d think, but you’d be shocked how they and business leaders at large cannot really explain what that is. Quick Answer: Something readers can use straightaway that doesn’t require (vital word there) that they call you to fill out the blanks. Of course, a fraction will because they don’t have the time to do what you whatever it is you just taught them but love it all the same. Cha-ching!

Write Good Stuff

They have to be informative and easy to read. Your piece has a better opportunity at publication if it tickles the funny bone, so use humor that supports your arguments (not just jokes). Your topic’s not funny? Hey, with a little imagination and half a bottle of barbecue sauce, you can make a burning hen-house full of baby chicks enjoyable. (Try to get that picture out of your head, go on.)

Find Your Venue

Years ago, you could find Ulrich’s Guide to Periodical Literature at the library and spend the day looking up publications, sorted by subscription and subject matter that back up your concepts. Now of course you can go on-line to http://ulrichsweb.serialssolutions.com/login and register to use their service.

This is print periodical stuff, but blogs are even more important if you get in the appropriate ones. Just Google your topic and the really huge blogs (translation, big following) will appear, or Google blog rankings and the leading websites with blogs by categories like Technorati will turn up. Click on the blogs you like and find their submission procedure or editorial contact to figure out if they accept external content (some don’t, some do). Now develop your list of publications and blog sites by the subjects you cover. Every time you write on that subject, you have a list of probables that might accept it (with some modifications to get it in their format).

Entice Them to Your Sales Funnel

Write a byline at the end of your piece that lets the reader to talk to you by phone, email, and whatever you do, include your website URL (or a landing page on it) as a hyperlink. That hyperlink is one more back link to your website, which not only supplies an avenue in for the reader, but it boosts your website page rank for your SEO endeavors.

You can even provide a bounce back or lead magnet in the byline where the reader can contact you to get a top ten list or something else they may want for free. Of course, link directly to that freebee so they don’t have to work a lot to find it. Then make them enter their email addresses to get it, and that puts them into your sales list. Opportunities aplenty.

Submit Again and Again

Each week I write one to two pieces that right now we call blog posts. I post them on my website. I promptly develop a library of content that I have produced that expresses my expertise. It takes a little work, but you can then make versions of your initial blog pieces, either segments with only an aspect of the text or the entire content, re-written so that it is original in the Internet world.

I can write a whole article (actually I think I will) on making unique material from your really original content the proper way. There are plenty of article spinning tools around that can help you rewrite things, but be careful with these. Unedited even the best spinning applications will create a load of useless rubbish that is neither enjoyable and gets you the Google slap. I pay a virtual assistant (VA) every week to re-create 2-3 of my articles with the same ideas but completely different headlines, subtitles, and body subject, and then submit for me to my top 10 outlets.

Promote Yourself Socially

You can promote your blog posts via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, etc. Most bloggers do. It’s just as big a deal to market the links of the blogs that publish your write ups. Your byline will give a means of getting to your site, as will well-placed text hyperlinks within the article, but by promoting the other guy’s blog, it advances your authority as a subject matter expert. It’s not only you that posted this piece on a site you control, but now a noted authority site thinks enough of you to publish your articles. That makes a big difference on your click-thrus from the byline to your website and on your ultimate conversion rate.

Keep submitting and promoting. If you observed these steps, the law of averages (my hit rate is about 75%) says your name will be in print or online. The phone starts ringing or the contact page starts generating and you’re in business.

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Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development and cost management consulting firm for small to mid-size enterprises. He has made a career of leading, inspiring and raising the game of small business people. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the Smart Shop, Amazon.com, or Barnes&Noble.com. He can be reached at kwalinskas@smartcompanygrowth.com.

Save Big On SEO

By Mike Little in Featured

Search engine optimization has come a long way over the past two decades. When I entered the field in the mid 90′s most SEO was just entering a few lines of Meta tags and making sure your keywords were prominent on the page without overdoing it. Of course, back then there were maybe 25,000 to 50,000 competing web pages for any given keyword. Today typical competition ranges from 800,000 to 1,100,000. That’s a big difference! Go ahead and type in any keyword phrase into Google, Yahoo or Bing to see what I mean. Crazy, isn’t it?

OK, so we know that SEO has become a lot more complicated than it once was, while also becoming much more competitive. This is not exactly new news to most of us.

We already knew SEO was a big deal. Even if we did not know exactly how big a deal, it becomes apparent that it must be both valuable and difficult when you see how much it costs to pay an SEO company.

As of June 2011, the average cost of SEO services in the United States hovers around $9,000.- to $14,000.- per year for a typical service industry company such as plumber or electrician. It is also about the same (high-end at 14k to 18k) for accountants and even more for legal practices going after ultra competitive keywords that bring in the big bucks in clientele (20k plus!).

When all is said and done, the typical business owner will invest ten to twenty thousand dollars per year in SEO. And although it sounds steep, they would not be doing it if they were not making even more money in return. In most cases; much more money. As I guess as the old joke goes – why is SEO so expensive? Because it’s worth it.

But how does that help you? Unless you have the money to invest, it does not help you at all. In fact, it hurts your position because now you are competing against those with a huge advantage. And that advantage is helping them pull even further ahead, steal your customers and make even more money. You have heard the old saying about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? This is a great example of how it happens in business. But it does not have to be this way. They might have money but you have brains. Now if you are willing to match those smarts with a little hard work, you can take on your biggest competitor and never look back.

First of all, use a free keyword suggestion tool to find the best keywords to target. Just run a search for “free keyword tool” and try a couple out. If you use Google’s free keyword suggestion tool you can even just enter your domain name (or that of a competitor) and let it suggest which keywords are best to target.

Second, make a list of three to five keywords that you think are right up your alley. If you sell items locally, be sure the keywords include your geo… IE/ “plumber in Boston” or “Boston plumber”. Of course, make sure there is plenty of search volume for the whole keyword, including the geo qualifier (city, town, etc.)

Third, run a search for each of those keywords on Google, Yahoo and Bing to see if your site comes up. If you do not see it in the first page or two, there is no need to look any deeper because nobody is going to find it anyway. Tip: You can also look into a piece of SEO software to do this for you by running a search for “rank tracking software.”

Now, make note of the keywords that show the most promise and make this your target list.

Note: If any of these keywords show up within the top ten pages of the search engine results, then you probably do not have to do any onsite SEO like adding SEO copywriting or updating Meta tags. In fact, you can do it all by just building quality one-way inbound links so you can skip to that step.

Finally, if you find you need to update the on-page factors such as SEO copy and Meta tags, follow these simple steps.

1.) Make sure you have at least 300 words of text per page and that your keyword in question shows up at least once per 100 words (1.5 times is optimal), without going over five mentions total.

2.) Most search engines will expect to see your main keyword mentioned more at the top of the page and less as you get toward the bottom. Please note however that you need at least one mention in the final paragraph to keep it feeling legit.

3.) Pay special attention to your Title Meta tag and keep it simple. Having each keyword separated by a “pipe” is a great way to handle this tag with the company name put toward the end. Just don’t use the geo too often and feel free to follow-up with the state abbreviation and state name spelled out. For our example it might be “Boston Plumber | Boston Plumbing Company | Emergency Plumbers | Boston | MA | Massachusetts.”

4.) Get as many high quality backlinks as possible from authority sites. An easy way to do this is to register with as many directories as possible. Easy, but it can be very time consuming as it typically involves setting up a user account, writing a good title, writing an SEO optimized description, verifying your account setup through an email, submitting your request and entering a captcha code to prove you are human and not an automated bot, and finally verifying your submission via email.

There are plenty of other ways to get links, and you will need several to really succeed. If you do not mind spending $75 you can hire a link building company. If you don’t want to continue spending that money you might want to look into buying a piece of SEO software for $150 to $200. if you go this route, get one that does automatic rank tracking for you too and save a ton of time and effort.

Please note that as an SEO professional I am happiest when people choose to hire out the work. However, as a small business owner, I must say that if you can invest $150 or so, you can scoop up a tool that does it all for you. Most SEO professionals have at least this one in their toolbox; http://www.seoeliteweb.com but there are many out there.

Just shop around and spend wisely. You can save an absolute bundle on your SEO efforts, and eat your competition’s lunch, if you do.

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Mike Little has been a search engine optimization professional since 1996. In 2003 he joined one of the oldest established SEO companies in the US; DotCom Pirates and has worked with over 200 companies worldwide since that time.

Statistical Justification for Web Video Is Everywhere

By Jerry Bader in Featured

As a follow-up to the article “Web Advertising’s Future Format: Branded Entertainment” I thought readers might be interested in some statistical justification that arrived in my in-box from two different sources. Check out the Online Media Daily article by Joe Mandese “Internet Emerges As Fastest Growing Segment Of Paid Product Placement” at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131054&nid=115967and the Wayne Friedman’s article in MediaDailyNews, “Online Ads Surpass TV Ads In Recall, Likability” at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=126671&nid=113593.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design and marketing firm that specializes in Web-video Marketing Campaigns and Video Websites. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

Web Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Big Business Mistakes

By Jerry Bader in Featured

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Chili’s restaurant chain brought back their “I Want My Baby Back Ribs” jingle with a new media campaign. In Canada, the makers of the Coffee Crisp candy bar recently started to rerun an almost twenty year old commercial featuring two very amusing card playing senior citizens with the memorable tag, “How do you like your coffee? I like my Coffee Crisp!”

Unlike the movie and music industries that keep recycling the same tired ideas and overpriced performers because (1) they fear their own self-perpetuating financially crippling business model and (2) because they are at heart, creatively bankrupt, some in the commercial marketing industry have realized what branding is about: a consistent message that resonates in the mind of the consumer. If you have a memorable campaign that penetrates the mind of the consumer, you need to push it for all it’s worth, rather than switching messages like you switch your underwear.

McDonald’s runs so many different campaigns aimed at so many different demographics that it no longer has a brand image. Maybe some overpaid marketing guru will remember “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, etc.”

Small and medium sized businesses can learn an important lesson from this kind of marketing faux pax: once you hit on a brand message the works, one that people not only remember, but take to heart – do not mess with it.

Jerry Bader
MRPwebmedia
(905) 764-1246

Visit Our Sites

http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads

http://www.136words.com

http://www.sonicpersonality.com

http://www.cacheclosed.com

About MRPwebmedia

People ask, “What do you do?” You could say we inform, enlighten, innovate, and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video, audio, webmedia campaigns and websites; all created in-house from concept to implementation, from graphic and motion design to Web-design, from script writing to video-production to post-production, from music composition to signature sound design.

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand, your message, embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers; we turn advertising into content, and content into an experience.

How-To Videos Convert Viewers Into Buyers

By Jerry Bader in Featured

One of the fastest growing areas of website marketing is the ‘how-to’ video business sector. With the epidemic of layoffs, plant closings, and cost cutting, the growth of how-to-material covering everything from how to start a business, to how to improve a business, to how to survive bankruptcy, is assured. No matter what the subject matter, how-to-do-it-better is in demand, and it’s big business.

The desire to be the best you can be is one of our innate needs, but the shear volume of demand seems to be the result of rapid and fundamental changes in technology, the economy, and society. This has led to a massive inferiority complex resulting from an, improve or perish, mentality delivered by a constant barrage of information, metrics, and analysis.

The Web is an ideal environment for using a video how-to-sales-strategy to increase site conversions but as always, the devil is in the details; you need to understand the underlying desire in order to make the strategy work. Whether your approach to sales is to sell-by-teaching or, what you sell is teaching, the fact is, the way you do it is what will make or break you.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

About MRPwebmedia

People ask, “What do you do?” You could say we inform, enlighten, innovate, and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video, audio, webmedia campaigns and websites; all created in-house from concept to implementation, from graphic and motion design to Web-design, from script writing to video-production to post-production, from music composition to signature sound design.

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand, your message, embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers.

MRPwebmedia Introduces The ConceptCreator

By Jerry Bader in Featured

MRPwebmedia is pleased to announce the introduction of ConceptCreator©, a preproduction development process that acts as the initial step in creating an engaging, informative, entertaining, and above all memorable Web Video Campaign or Video Microsite; it is the Campaign Concept that states a company’s differentiating marketing message within the context of its brand story. Using the ConceptCreator© process, MRPwebmedia helps companies define their emotional and psychological value proposition, the key element in building a Web-based marketing communication strategy that creates, enhances, and promotes brand personality, the key factor in converting a website audience from passive viewers into enthusiastic clients.

Toronto, Canada, September 22, 2009 — Toronto, ON. ConceptCreator© is a new preproduction development process that acts as the initial step in creating an engaging, informative, entertaining, and above all memorable Web Video Campaign or Video Microsite; it is the Campaign Concept that states a company’s differentiating marketing message within the context of its brand story.
ConceptCreator© is an exclusive MRPwebmedia creative service used to discover the emotional and psychological value that a company or its products promise; it forms the basis of all a company’s marketing communication efforts and is the key to establishing a brand personality, market position, and corporate image. It states a company’s promise and creates appropriate expectations. It is the missing ingredient on most company websites, and in their marketing communication efforts. It is the key to future marketing success. All a company needs is a willingness to think out-side-the-box.
ConceptCreator© is an inexpensive stand-alone service that puts marketing communication efforts on the right track. There is no further obligation beyond the initial ConceptCreator© stage, but if a company decides to go forward with the suggested Video Campaign or Video Microsite the cost of the service is deducted from the cost of the full project.
ConceptCreator© allows business owners and entrepreneurs to get ad agency quality concept development-work for a fraction of the cost, and it allows businesses to get their feet wet without any additional financial commitment.
Contactl Jerry Bader at (905) 764-1246 or email info@mrpwebmedia,com for further details.
About MRPwebmedia

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads and http://www.136words.com 
Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246

New Video Micro Campaign Site Summer Promotion

By Jerry Bader in Featured

Summer Special

New Video Micro Campaign Site Special designed to promote a particular product, service, or special promotional campaign, includes a basic five page Micro Video Campaign Website with four 30-60 second video presentations using one onscreen actor filmed in studio on a white, black, or green screen background, plus custom signature music all done in MRPwebmedia’s innovative branding-delivery style.

Specifics can be discussed and modified for each client depending on their particular requirements and needs.

Additional videos, video lengths, Web pages, actors, props, and sets are available at additional costs.

If you are interested you can contact us for details, pricing, and an actual client example.

Jerry Bader
MRPwebmedia
(905) 764-1246

Visit Our Sites

http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads

http://www.136words.com

http://www.sonicpersonality.com

http://www.cacheclosed.com

MRPwebmedia Introduces Web Wise-Guy Cache Closed

By Jerry Bader in Featured

Jerry Bader, Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia announced the introduction of Cache Closed an entertaining marketing resource for medium sized businesses fed-up with ineffective Web advertising schemes and the never-ending pursuit of search engine optimization rankings. See http://www.CacheClosed.com

Ontario, Canada–June 20, 2008 – MRPwebmedia, a Canadian Web marketing video and audio production firm with clients in the USA, Australia, England, and Canada announced the introduction of Cache Closed, a entertaining character who stars in a new series of videos designed to inform businesses on how to deliver their marketing messages in the most memorable manner using the full arsenal of webmedia techniques.

Jerry Bader, Senior Partner at the firm says: “Cache Closed is a digital construct, fabricated from the binary remains of lost and discarded knowledge found in the ditch beside the information highway. Cache, a combination of Max Headroom and Jim Cary’s Mask character, has absorbed theses random bits of wisdom to create a guru of marketing and branding who freely spouts his expertise and knowledge to all who will listen.”

Josh Bader, Director of Visual Design and Video Production, adds: “We already have over fifty articles on our mrpwebmedia.com website that explain how to use audio and video on the Web to deliver clients’ marketing messages in the most effective way, but we wanted to create something where the medium was the message. Cache is the perfect vehicle to explain to business owners and marketing executives feed-up with chasing search engine optimization nirvana of how to convert browsers into an audience, and an audience into customers.”

Simon Bader, Director of Audio and Sound Design continues: “Any business truly interested in maximizing their Web presence needs to understand the Web environment beyond chasing random search traffic and learn how to present material so a relevant audience remembers who you are, what you do, and why they should care. And that’s what the Cache Closed website and video series are designed to teach people: How to get noticed and be remembered.”

MRPwebmedia’s thought-provoking marketing articles have a great following and Cache is one more Web-video vehicle that extends the motivational dialog the firm has with its International clients and followers. It illustrates the cutting edge techniques and offbeat point-of-view of a Web-marketing firm that understands how to get a message across, and it showcases the full complement of services that MRPwebmedia offers.

Jerry Bader goes on to say: “People ask us, ‘What do you do?’ You could say we inform, enlighten, innovate, and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video, audio, webmedia campaigns and websites; all created in-house from concept to implementation, from graphic and motion design to Web-design, from script writing to post-production, from music composition to signature sound design. What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to our clients’ audience’s real needs. We tell our clients’ stories so their brand and their message embeds in the minds of their clients. In short, we are corporate storytellers, and the Cache Closed videos and associated articles show how it’s done, and why.”

Jerry Bader, Senior Partner, MRPwebmedia
Tel: (905) 764-1246
info@mrpwebmedia.com

http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads

http://www.cacheclosed.com

http://www.sonicpersonality.com

http://www.136words.com

© Copyright 2012 All rights reserved. Jayde Online, Inc.

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